a journal of finding good food and restaurants i love to eat in Taipei when I'm not in Los Angeles. looking forward to hearing from other food lovers about where your favorite places to eat are, so i can try them next!

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

chinese: NONG LAI

Family dinners always come with too much food. Maybe because whoever is hosting that night wants to make sure no one leaves hungry, or maybe it's just easier to order from the family menu. I don't think it's strictly a Chinese thing- think about the holiday season, the table full of more food than you could ever digest.

fish eggs and lobster

This night was a perfect example- dish after dish after dish came to the table of what my uncle proclaimed were "Taiwanese" dishes. The restaurant was full of locals and the menu was only in Chinese with a few pictures, and the entrance to the restaurant was pretty difficult to find.

In general, the portions were huge (!), the food came quickly and the service was fast and efficient- they would switch the older dishes to smaller plates, and change the plates you had every few dishes without asking, so you didn't have to eat underneath shrimp shells and chicken bones.

I really enjoyed snacking on the fish eggs and lobster, although I hate mayo and scraped all of mine off. The boiled lobster underneath was a bit bland without it.

another angle lobster with lots of mayo and fish eggs

The chicken was tender and moist.

chicken

I don't like the taste of sea cucumbers urchins, despite the repeated insistence of my mother who asks me to taste it every time it's served. I'm not afraid of it (as some people are)- I rather not eat the rubbery, tasteless texture in my mouth. I do like the shiitake mushrooms though.

sea cucumbers and mushrooms

The shrimps were small, but fresh. It's a pain to peel them, but I usually peel a bunch at time then clean my hands with a hot towel and lemon and am done with peeling. They taste better dipped in soy sauce and wasabi.

boiled shrimps- picture taken after everyone served themselves- sorry i was too busy eating!

Didn't try the herbal soup, but it was HUGE.

herbal soup

Tried just a bite of the fish- it was tender, but bland.

the fish -almost all gone

Too full to eat anymore vegetables, but...

vegetarian mushrooms and chinese broccoli

seafood with vegetables

I left room for some unagi! It was sticky sweet and tender and delicious.

unagi with eel sauce

I had a little bit of crab- I thought it was a bit dry- even the eggs, which I like to eat, were also dry. It's not worth all the work of peeling the layers of getting the crab if it's not going to be moist and sweet.

fresh crab

The fried mushrooms and oysters were good, crispy and hot, especially dipped in the sweet wasabi salt. These were the smaller oysters and again the portions are HUGE!

fried mushrooms and fried oysters

Finally almost done with the dinner- a dessert is served. I've never seen this- sweet green mango under crushed ice, but the taste is refreshing and almost addicting. The mango almost tastes as if it was pickled in a sweet syrup.

sweet green mango under crushed ice

Overall, it was a good dinner- although I was a bit disappointed some of my favorite shellfish weren't as moist or tasty as I would have liked, there was SO much food, it was hard to complain. Nong Lai offers set menus at NT$5000-8000 and we had eleven people. I don't know which set menu my uncle got, but you can see from the amount of plates and the portions of the dishes, it can be a great deal per person. Of course, you can always order from the menu as well. Perfect for huge family get togethers with round tables and the lazy susans to make sure everyone gets a chance at the food.

if you see this sign on the corner, you are steps away from the entrance

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